Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Collating Princess BATMAN input...

Holy mackerel! There was so much input for the first round of Princess BATMAN concept art! Feel free to add more comments today, but as it stands now:
  • D seems to have the most overall appeal
  • Pigtails are the favorite hairstyle, with the white hair of C coming in second
  • B has the mask of choice
  • The puffy sleeves of C are well-liked
  • Nobody likes A's crown (it is kinda Sauron-y)
Thanks for the input. I've never designed by large committee before, this will be a fun experiment. Round two, using your feedback, will come tomorrow. It would have come today, but I was running behind on my graphic novel page count.

Here is a recent page. I've got twelve days to my deadline, and 33 pages like this to go. Which means I need to finish exactly 2.75 pages a day.

The sketches are already complete, they look like this:

I do the lettering (all hand-lettered, much more organic and in sync with the line-work than digital, font lettering, I think.) I ink the drawing (while making a few cuts and changes--you may spot a few) then I add the tone layer. I'm also doing a single color pass that, due to the spot-color printing process, doesn't read as a post-able jpeg. I've done about 210 pages like this since May. It has been a KILLER workload. But the end is in sight!

I don't think I've ever been more excited for a project, though. I can't wait for these books to arrive on shelves next year. Can't wait!
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9 comments:

  1. KrystalSeptember 15, 2011 at 9:25 PM

    This looks cool! It's interesting to see the process of how the pages come together. I like it. :)

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  2. NathanSeptember 15, 2011 at 9:43 PM

    Ahhhhh. Thank you.

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  3. ueberhundSeptember 15, 2011 at 10:29 PM

    That depicts the American withdrawal from Brooklyn, after colonial forces were badly beaten by the British.

    Do I win a prize??

    I would like you to come to my house dressed as Princess Batman (#2, if you don't mind).

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  4. Heather HoytSeptember 15, 2011 at 10:35 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. NathanSeptember 15, 2011 at 10:48 PM

    ueberhund wins a PRIZE! It's a Playstation 3! Wait, what's that ueberhund? You already have a Playstation 3? You have TWO of them?

    Oh well, I'll have to keep the prize. But you are the winner.

    I do have plans for a real life Princess BATMAN costume (though not on me...)

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  6. OpaleyzSeptember 16, 2011 at 5:40 AM

    this was a great post--I'm really looking forward to checking out the history books once they're published. They've got me in mind of the "the United States Constitution: a Graphic Adaptation" by Jonathan Hennessy, which was awesome. They will go over so well in libraries!

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  7. HeleneSeptember 16, 2011 at 10:09 AM

    I like the look of this. Rainy scenes always make me so excited.
    Unfortunately I know little of US history.
    I only remember the parts that include Canadians...

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  8. the mighty guinSeptember 20, 2011 at 9:55 AM

    Dang - I thought for sure that was the Delaware Crossing...need to brush up my book learnin'.

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  9. Rachel QSeptember 22, 2011 at 5:15 PM

    Are you writing all the content, too? Or just the graphics?

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